The Irish diaspora (
Irish: Diaspóra na nGael) refers to
Irish people and their descendants who live outside the island of
Ireland.

The phenomenon of migration from Ireland is recorded since the
Early Middle Ages,[1] but it is only possible to quantify it from around 1700: since then between 9 and 10 million people born in Ireland have emigrated. This is more than the
population of Ireland at its historical peak of 8.5 million in the 1840s. The poorest of them went to
Great Britain, especially
Liverpool; those who could afford it went farther, including almost 5 million to the
United States.[2]

After 1840, emigration from Ireland became a massive, relentless, and efficiently managed national enterprise.[3] In 1890, 40% of Irish-born people were living abroad. By the 21st century, an estimated 80 million people worldwide claimed some Irish descent, which includes more than 36 million Americans who claim Irish as their primary ethnicity.
[4]

As recently as the second half of the nineteenth century, the majority of Irish emigrants spoke
Irish as their first language. This had social and cultural consequences for the cultivation of the language abroad, including innovations in journalism. The language continues to be cultivated abroad by a small minority as a literary and social medium.[5] The Irish diaspora are largely assimilated in most countries outside Ireland.
Ciarán Cannon is the
Republic of Ireland's
Minister of State for the Diaspora.

Definition

The Bridge of Tears (Droichead na nDeor in
Irish) in
West Donegal, Ireland. Family and friends of emigrants would accompany them as far as the bridge before saying goodbye, while the emigrants would continue on to
Derry Port.

The term Irish diaspora is open to many interpretations. The
diaspora, broadly interpreted, contains all those known to have Irish ancestors, i.e., over 100 million people, which is more than fifteen times the population of the island of
Ireland, which was about 4.6 million in 2011. It has been argued the idea of an Irish diaspora, as distinct from the old identification of Irishness with Ireland itself, was influenced by the perceived advent of global mobility and modernity. Irishness could now be identified with dispersed individuals and groups of Irish descent. But many of those individuals were the product of complex ethnic intermarriage in America and elsewhere, complicating the idea of a single line of descent. "Irishness" might then rely primarily on individual identification with an Irish diaspora.[6]

The
Government of Ireland defines the Irish diaspora as all persons of
Irish nationality who habitually reside outside of the island of Ireland. This includes Irish citizens who have emigrated abroad and their children, who are Irish citizens by descent under
Irish law. It also includes their grandchildren in cases where they were registered as Irish citizens in the
Foreign Births Register held in every
Irish diplomatic mission.[7] Under this legal definition, the Irish diaspora is considerably smaller—some 3 million persons, of whom 1.47 million are Irish-born emigrants.[8] Given Ireland's population of 4.85 million, this is still a large ratio.[9]

A plaque commemorating The Bridge of Tears, which reads, "Fad leis seo a thagadh cairde agus lucht gaoil an té a bhí ag imeacht chun na coigrithe. B'anseo an scaradh. Seo Droichead na nDeor" (Family and friends of the person leaving for foreign lands would come this far. Here was the separation. This is the Bridge of Tears).

However, the usage of Irish diaspora is generally not limited by citizenship status, thus leading to an estimated (and fluctuating) membership of up to 80 million persons—the second and more emotive definition. The Irish Government acknowledged this interpretation—although it did not acknowledge any legal obligations to persons in this larger diaspora—when Article 2 of the
Constitution of Ireland was amended in 1998 to read "[f]urthermore, the Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage."

The right to register as an Irish citizen terminates at the third generation (except as noted above). This contrasts with citizenship law in
Italy,
Israel, Japan and other countries which practice
jus sanguinis or otherwise permit members of the diaspora to register as citizens.

There are people of Irish descent abroad (including
Irish speakers) who reject inclusion in an Irish "diaspora" and who designate their identity in other ways. They may see the diasporic label as something used by the Irish government for its own purposes.[10]

The Irish, whom the Romans called Scotti (but who called themselves Gaels), had raided and settled along the West Coast of
Roman Britain, and numbers were allowed to settle within the province, where the
Roman Army recruited many Irish into auxiliary units that were dispatched to the German frontier. The
Attacotti, who were similarly recruited into the Roman army, may also have been Irish settlers in Britain (the movement between Ireland and the classical Britain may have been two-way as similarities between the Medieval accounts of
Túathal Teachtmar and archaeological evidence indicate that the Romans may have supported the invasion and conquest of Ireland by Irish exiles from Britain with the hopes of establishing a friendly ruler who could halt the raiding of Britain by the Irish. Some historians have also suggested that the
Cruthin of the north of Ireland may have been
Picts.).[11] Following the withdrawal of the Roman army, the Irish began increasing their footholds in Britain, with part of the north-West of the island annexed within the Irish kingdom of
Dál Riata. In time, the Irish colonies became independent, merged with the
Pictish kingdom, and formed the basis of modern
Scotland.

The traditionally
Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland (the
Highlands and Hebrides) are still referred to in the Gaelic language as a' Ghàidhealtachd ("the Gaeldom"). Irish monks, and the
Celtic church, pioneered a wave of Irish emigration into Great Britain, and continental Europe (and they were possibly the first inhabitants of the
Faroe Islands and
Iceland).[12] Throughout early Medieval times Britain and continental Europe experienced Irish immigration of varying intensity, mostly from clerics and scholars who are collectively known as peregrini.[1] Irish emigration to western Europe, and especially to Great Britain, has continued at a greater or lesser pace since then. Today, the ethnic-Irish are the single largest minority group in both England and Scotland, most of whom eventually made it back to Ireland.

The English Crown did not attempt to assert full control of the island until after
Henry VIII's repudiation of
paprebelal authority over the
Church in England and subsequent rebellion of the
Earl of Kildare in Ireland in 1534 threatened English
hegemony there. Until the break with
Rome, it was widely believed that Ireland was a Papal possession granted as a mere
fiefdom to the English king, so in 1541 Henry VIII asserted England's claim to Ireland free from the Papal overlordship by proclaiming himself
King of Ireland.

The
Great Famine of Ireland during the 1840s saw a significant number of people flee from the island to all over the world. Between 1841 and 1851 as a result of death and mass emigration (mainly to Great Britain and North America) Ireland's population fell by over 2 million. In
Connacht alone the population fell by almost 30%.

Robert E. Kennedy explains, however, that the common argument of the mass emigration from Ireland being a "flight from famine" is not entirely correct: firstly, the Irish had been coming to build canals in Great Britain since the 18th century, and once conditions were better emigration did not slow down. After the famine was over the four following years produced more emigrants than during the four years of the blight. Kennedy argues that the famine was considered the final straw to convince people to move and that there were several other factors in the decision making.

By 1900 the population of Ireland was about half of its 1840 high and continued to fall during the 20th century.

Irish people at home were facing discrimination from Great Britain based on the former's religion. Evictions only increased after the repeal of the British
Corn Laws in 1846 and the new
Encumbered Estates Act being passed in 1849 as well as the removal of existing civil rights. There had been agrarian terrorism against landlords which these new laws were implemented to stop the retribution. Any hope for change was squashed with the death of
Daniel O'Connell in 1847, the political leader championing for Ireland, and the failed rising of the
Young Irelanders in 1848. More was to be gained by immigrating to America from Ireland and the
1848 discovery of gold in the
Sierra Nevada lured away more.[13]

The
Internet and the number of resources now readily accessible has resulted in an explosion of interest in the topic.[15] According to some sources, genealogy is one of the most popular topics on the Internet.[16][17]

Plastic Paddies

People of the Irish diaspora who were not born in Ireland but who identify as Irish are sometimes labelled as Plastic Paddies.[18]

Mary J. Hickman writes that "plastic Paddy" was a term used to "deny and denigrate the second-generation Irish in Britain" in the 1980s, and was "frequently articulated by the new middle class Irish immigrants in Britain, for whom it was a means of distancing themselves from established Irish communities."[19] According to Bronwen Walter, professor of Irish Diaspora Studies at
Anglia Ruskin University, "the adoption of a
hyphenated identity has been much more problematic for the second generation Irish in Britain. The Irish-born have frequently denied the authenticity of their Irish identity."[20]

The term has also been used to taunt non-Irish-born players who choose to play for the
Republic of Ireland national football team,[21] fans of Irish teams, who are members of supporters clubs outside Ireland,[22] and other Irish individuals living in Great Britain.[23] A study by the
University of Strathclyde and
Nil by Mouth found the term was used abusively on
Celtic F.C. and
Rangers F.C. supporters'
internet forums in reference to Celtic supporters and the wider Roman Catholic community in Scotland.[24] In August 2009, a Rangers F.C supporter, himself a
British Asian man from Birmingham, England, received a suspended sentence after making derogatory comments to a police officer, who was of Irish origin. The prosecutor said the man had made racist remarks about the officer, including accusations that the officer was a "Plastic Paddy".[25]

When I was a student in Dublin we scoffed at the American celebration of St. Patrick, finding something preposterous in the green beer, the search for any connection, no matter how tenuous, to Ireland, the misty sentiment of it all that seemed so at odds with the Ireland we knew and actually lived in. Who were these people dressed as Leprechauns and why were they dressed that way? This Hibernian Brigadoon was a sham, a mockery, a Shamrockery of real Ireland and a remarkable exhibition of plastic paddyness. But at least it was confined to the Irish abroad and those foreigners desperate to find some trace of green in their blood.[26]

In Spiked, Brendan O'Neill, himself of Irish descent, uses the term to describe "second-generation wannabe" Irishmen[27] and writes that some of those guilty of "Plastic Paddyism" (or, in his words, "
Dermot-itis") are
Bill Clinton,
Daniel Day-Lewis, and
Shane MacGowan.[27] Scottish-Australian songwriter
Eric Bogle wrote and recorded a song titled "Plastic Paddy". British
Mixed martial arts fighter
Dan Hardy has called American fighter
Marcus Davis a "Plastic Paddy" due to Marcus' enthusiasm for his Irish ancestry and identity.[28] In the book Why I Am Still a Catholic: Essays in Faith and Perseverance by
Peter Stanford, the television presenter
Dermot O'Leary describes his upbringing as "classic plastic paddy", where he would be "bullied in a nice way" by his own cousins in Wexford for being English "until anyone else there called me English and then they would stick up for me."[29]

Today, millions of residents of Great Britain are either from the island of Ireland or have Irish ancestry. It is estimated that as many as six million people living in the UK have an Irish-born grandparent (around 10% of the UK population).[30]

The
2001 UK Census states that 869,093 people born in Ireland are living in Great Britain.
More than 10% of those born in the United Kingdom have at least one grandparent born in Ireland.[31] The article "More Britons applying for Irish passports" states that 6 million Britons have either an Irish grandfather or grandmother and are thus able to apply for Irish citizenship.[31] Almost a quarter claimed some Irish ancestry in one survey.[32]

The Irish have traditionally been involved in the building trade and transport particularly as dockers, following an influx of Irish workers, or
navvies, to build the British canal, road and rail networks in the 19th century. This is largely due to the flow of
emigrants from Ireland during
the Great Famine of 1845–1849. Many Irish servicemen, particularly sailors, settled in Britain: During the 18th and 19th century a third of the Army and Royal Navy were Irish. The Irish still represent a large contingent of foreign volunteers to the British military.[33] Since the 1950s and 1960s in particular, the Irish have become assimilated into the British population. Emigration continued into the next century; over half a million Irish went to Britain in World War II to work in industry and serve in the
British armed forces. In the post-war reconstruction era, the numbers of immigrants began to increase, many settling in the larger cities and towns of Britain. According to the 2001 census, around 850,000 people in Britain were born in Ireland.

Central to the Irish community in Britain was the community's relationship with the
Roman Catholic Church, with which it maintained a strong sense of identity.[citation needed] The Church remains a crucial focus of communal life among some of the immigrant population and their descendants.[citation needed] The largest ethnic group among the
Roman Catholic priesthood of Britain remains Irish[citation needed] (in the United States, the upper ranks of the Church's hierarchy are of predominantly Irish descent.[citation needed]) The former head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland is Cardinal
Keith O'Brien.

London once more holds an official public
St Patrick's Day celebration, which although having been cancelled in the 1970s because of
Irish Republican violence, is now a national celebration, with over 60 percent[citation needed][36] of the population regularly celebrating the day regardless of their ethnic origins.

The Irish have maintained a strong political presence in the UK (mostly in Scotland), in local government and at the national level. Former Prime Ministers
David Cameron,
Tony Blair,
John Major and
James Callaghan have been amongst the many in Britain of part-Irish ancestry; Blair's mother, Hazel Elizabeth Rosaleen Corscaden, was born on 12 June 1923 in
Ballyshannon,
County Donegal. Former Chancellor
George Osborne is a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy and heir to the
baronetcies of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon.[37]

Americas

With its newly established trans-Atlantic empire, England needed labour. After the
Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Kingdom of England began to pacify Ireland through
ethnic cleansing, transporting large numbers of Irish, often forced into indentured servitude, to the New World. This increased following the
English Civil War (1642–1651) and the
Cromwellian invasion of Ireland (1649–1653).
Cromwell took Irish land both to repay investors who had financed the invasion and as payment for his soldiers, and the ethnic Irish were ordered to move to
Connaught or die. Between 1641 and 1652, over 550,000 Irish died from famine and other war-related causes. The Irish population of Ireland fell from 1,466,000 to 616,000. Between 1652 and 1659, 50,000 Irish men, women and children were sent to the West Indies, Virginia and Bermuda.

Argentina

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, over 38,000 Irish immigrated to
Argentina.[38] Very distinct Irish communities and schools existed until the Perón era in the 1950s.

Today there are an estimated 1,000,000 people of Irish ancestry in Argentina,[38] approximately 15.5% of the Republic of Ireland's current population; however, these numbers may be far higher, given that many Irish newcomers declared themselves to be British, as Ireland at the time was still part of the United Kingdom and today their descendants integrated into Argentine society with mixed bloodlines.

Despite the fact that Argentina was never the main destination for Irish emigrants it does form part of the Irish diaspora. The Irish-Argentine
William Bulfin remarked as he travelled around Westmeath in the early 20th century that he came across many locals who had been to Buenos Aires. Several families from
Bere island,
County Cork were encouraged to send emigrants to Argentina by an islander who had been successful there in the 1880s.[39]

The first entirely Roman Catholic English language publication published in Buenos Aires, The Southern Cross is an Argentine newspaper founded on 16 January 1875 by Dean Patricio Dillon, an Irish immigrant, a deputy for
Buenos Aires Province and president of the Presidential Affairs Commission amongst other positions. The newspaper continues in print to this day and publishes a beginners guide to the
Irish language, helping
Irish Argentines keep in touch with their cultural heritage. Previously to The Southern Cross Dublin-born brothers
Edward and
Michael Mulhall successfully published The Standard, allegedly the first English-language daily paper in South America.

Bermuda

Bermudiana, found only in Bermuda and Ireland

Bermudiana (Sisyrinchium bermudiana), the
indigenous flower that is ubiquitous in
Bermuda in the Spring, has now been realised to be found in one other location, Ireland, where it is restricted to sites around
Lough Erne and
Lough Melvin in County
Fermanagh, and is known as Feilistrín gorm, or
Blue-eyed grass.[40][41] Early in its history,
Bermuda had unusual connections with Ireland. It has been suggested that
St. Brendan discovered it during his legendary voyage; a local
psychiatric hospital (since renamed) was named after him.[42][43][44] In 1616, an incident occurred in which five white settlers arrived in Ireland, having crossed the Atlantic (a distance of around 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi)) in a two-ton boat.[45] By the following year, one of Bermuda's main islands was
named after Ireland.[46] By the mid-17th century, Irish
prisoners of war and
ethnically cleansed civilians were involuntarily shipped to Bermuda, condemned to
indentured servitude.[47] This expulsion resulted from the
Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.[48] The English government expelled Irish people to other parts of the trans-Atlantic Empire as well. This was meant to pacify Ireland, easing English rule, and to clear land for settlement by English soldiers. The Puritan English government officials also expressed the opinion that they were saving the souls of the Roman Catholic Irish by settling them in Protestant territories where they would inevitably be converted to the true faith. Smaller numbers of Scottish prisoners were also sent to Bermuda following Cromwell's invasion of Scotland.

Relations between the involuntary Irish immigrants and the local English population were strained. The Irish and Scots were ostracised by the English, ultimately intermarrying with Black and Native American minority groups to create a single demographic (coloured, which in Bermuda included anyone not able to be described as wholly of European ancestry. Today, the term has been replaced by Black, in which wholly sub-Saharan African ancestry is erroneously implicit). The Irish quickly proved troublesome, and Bermudian slave owners were instructed that those that hath the Irish servants should take care that they straggle not night nor day as is too common with them. In 1658, three Irishmen – John Shehan, David Laragen and Edmund Malony – were lashed for breaking
curfew and being suspected of stealing a boat. A Scottish indentured servant and three black slaves were also punished.[49] Several years later, in 1661, the local government alleged that a plot was being hatched by an alliance of Blacks and Irish, one which involved cutting the throats of all the English.
GovernorWilliam Sayle prepared for the uprising with three edicts: The first was that a nightly watch be raised throughout the colony; second, that slaves and the Irish be disarmed of militia weapons; and third, that any gathering of two or more Irish or slaves be dispersed by whipping. There were no arrests, trials or executions connected to the plot,[50] though an Irish woman named Margaret was found to be romantically involved with a Native American; she was voted to be stigmatised and he was whipped.[51]

During the course of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, the colony's various demographic groups boiled down to free whites and mostly enslaved "coloured" Bermudians with a homogeneous English culture. Little survived of the non-English cultures. Catholicism was outlawed in Bermuda, as with the rest of English territory, and all islanders were required by law to attend services of the established
Church of England. Some surnames that were common in Bermuda at this period, however, give lingering evidence of the Irish presence. By example, the area to the east of Bailey's Bay, in Hamilton Parish, is named Callan Glen for a Scottish-born shipwright, Claude MacCallan, who settled in Bermuda after the vessel in which he was a passenger was wrecked off the North Shore in 1787. MacCallan swam to a rock from which he was rescued by a Bailey's Bay fisherman named Daniel Seon (Sheehan). A later Daniel Seon was appointed Clerk of the
House of Assembly and Prothonotary of the Court of General Assize in 1889 (he was also the Registrar of the Supreme Court, and died in 1909).

In 1803, Irish poet
Thomas Moore arrived in Bermuda, having been appointed registrar to the
Admiralty there. Robert Kennedy, born in
Cultra,
County Down, was the
Government of Bermuda's Colonial Secretary, and was the acting
Governor of Bermuda on three occasions (1829, 1830 and 1835–1836).[52] Irish prisoners were again sent to Bermuda in the 19th century, including participants in the ill-fated
Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, Nationalist journalist and politician
John Mitchel, and painter and convicted murderer
William Burke Kirwan. Alongside English convicts, they were used to build the
Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island.[53] Conditions for the convicts were harsh, and discipline was draconian. In April, 1830, convict James Ryan was shot and killed during rioting of convicts on Ireland Island. Another five convicts were given death sentences for their parts in the riots, with those of the youngest three being commuted to transportation (to
Australia) for life. In June 1849 convict James
Cronin, on the hulk
Medway at Ireland Island, was placed in solitary confinement from the 25th to the 29th for fighting. On release, and being returned to work, he refused to be cross-ironed. He ran onto the breakwater, brandishing a poker threateningly. For this, he was ordered to receive punishment (presumably flogging) on Tuesday, 3 July 1849, with the other convicts aboard the hulk assembled behind a rail to witness. When ordered to strip, he hesitated. Thomas Cronin, his older brother, addressed him and, while brandishing a knife, rushed forward to the separating rail. He called out to the other prisoners in
Irish and many joined him in attempting to free the prisoner and attack the officers. The officers opened fire. Two men were killed and twelve wounded. Punishment of James Cronin was then carried out. Three-hundred men of the
42nd Regiment of Foot, in barracks on Ireland Island, responded to the scene under arms.[54]

Although the
Roman Catholic Church (which had been banned in Bermuda, as in the rest of England, since settlement) began to operate openly in Bermuda in the 19th century, its priests were not permitted to conduct baptisms, weddings or funerals. As the most important British naval and military base in the Western Hemisphere following US independence, large numbers of Irish Roman Catholic soldiers served in the British Army's
Bermuda Garrison (the Royal Navy had also benefitted from a shipload of Irish emigres wrecked on Bermuda, with most being recruited into the navy there). The first Roman Catholic services in Bermuda were conducted by British Army chaplains early in the 19th Century. Mount Saint Agnes Academy, a private school operated by the Roman Catholic Church of Bermuda, opened in 1890 at the behest of officers of the
86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot (which was posted to Bermuda from 1880 to 1883), who had requested from the
Archbishop of
Halifax, Nova Scotia, a school for the children of Irish Roman Catholic soldiers.[55][56]

Not all Irish soldiers in Bermuda had happy lives there. Private Joseph McDaniel of the
30th Regiment of Foot (who was born in the
East Indies to an Irish father and a
Malay mother) was convicted of the murder of Mary Swears in June, 1837, after he had been found with a self-inflicted wound and her lifeless body. Although he maintained his innocence throughout the trial, after his conviction he confessed that they had made a pact to die together. Although he had succeeded in killing her, he had failed to kill himself. He was put to death on Wednesday, 29 November 1837. Private Patrick Shea of the
20th Regiment of Foot was sentenced to death in June 1846, for discharging his weapon at Sergeant John Evans. His sentence was commuted to transportation (to
Australia) for life. In October, 1841,
County Carlow-born Peter Doyle had also been transported to Australia for fourteen years for shooting at a picket. At his court martial he had explained that he had been drunk at the time.[57]

Other Irish soldiers, taking discharge, made a home in Bermuda, remaining there for the rest of their lives. Dublin-born Sapper Cornelius Farrell was discharged in Bermuda from the
Royal Engineers. His three Bermudian-born sons followed him into the army, fighting on the Western Front during the
First World War in the
Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps.

Although there is little surviving evidence of Irish culture, some elderly islanders can remember when the term "cilig" (or killick) was used to describe a common method of fishing for sea turtles by tricking them into swimming into prearranged nets (this was done by splashing a stone on a line—the cilig—into the water on the turtle's opposite side). The word cilig appears to be meaningless in English, but in some dialects of Gaelic is used as an adjective meaning "easily deceived".[58] In Irish there is a word cílí meaning sly. It is used in the expression Is é an cílí ceart é (pronounced Shayeh kilic airtay) and means What a sly-boots.[59] Alternatively, the word may be derived from an Irish word for a stone and wood anchor.[60] Characteristics of older Bermudian accents, such as the pronunciation of the letter 'd' as 'dj', as in Bermudjin (Bermudian), may indicate an Irish origin.[61] Later Irish immigrants have continued to contribute to Bermuda's makeup, with names like Crockwell (Ó Creachmhaoil) and
O'Connor (Ó Conchobhair) now being thought of locally as Bermudian names.[62][63] The strongest remaining Irish influence can be seen in the presence of bagpipes in the
music of Bermuda, which stemmed from the presence of Scottish and Irish soldiers from the 18th through 20th centuries. Several prominent businesses in Bermuda have a clear Irish influence, such as the Irish Linen Shop, Tom Moore's Tavern and Flanagan's Irish Pub and Restaurant.

A succession of Irish
Masonic lodges have existed in Bermuda, beginning with Military Lodge #192, established by soldiers of the
47th Regiment of Foot, and operating in Bermuda from 1793 to 1801. This was an ambulatory or traveling lodge, as with other military lodges, moving with its members. Irish Lodges #220 (also a military travelling lodge) was active in Bermuda from 1856 to 1861, and Irish Lodge #209 was established in Bermuda in 1881. Minder Lodge #63 of the Irish Constitution was in Bermuda with the 20th Regiment of Foot from 1841 to 1847. The Hannibal Lodge #224 of the Irish Constitution was warranted in 1867, and still exists, meeting in the Masonic Hall on Old Maid's Lane,
St. George's. Another Hannibal Chapter, #123 of the Irish Constitution, was chartered in 1877, but lasted only until 1911.[64]

Canada

The 2006 census by Statcan, Canada's Official Statistical office revealed that the Irish were the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,354,155 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent or 14% of the nation's total population.[65] During the 2016 census by Statistics Canada, the Irish ethnicity retained its spot as the 4th largest ethnic group with 4,627,000 Canadians with full or partial Irish descent.[66]

Many
Newfoundlanders are of Irish descent. It is estimated that about 80% of Newfoundlanders have Irish ancestry on at least one side of their family tree. The family names, the predominant Roman Catholic religion, the prevalence of Irish music – even the accents of the people – are so reminiscent of rural Ireland that Irish author
Tim Pat Coogan has described Newfoundland as "the most Irish place in the world outside Ireland".[67]Newfoundland Irish, the dialect of the
Irish language specific to the island was widely spoken until the mid-20th century. It is very similar to the language heard in the southeast of Ireland centuries ago, due to mass emigration from the counties
Tipperary,
Waterford,
Wexford,
County Kerry and
Cork.

Saint John, New Brunswick, claims the distinction of being Canada's most Irish city, according to census records. There have been Irish settlers in
New Brunswick since at least the late 18th century, but during the peak of the
Great Irish Famine (1845–1847), thousands of Irish emigrated through Partridge Island in the port of Saint John. Most of these Irish were Roman Catholic, who changed the complexion of the Loyalist city. A large, vibrant Irish community can also be found in the
Miramichi region of
New Brunswick.

In
Antigonish County, next to
Guysborough County in Nova Scotia there are a few rural Irish villages despite the predominance of
Scottish in most of that County. Some of these villages names are Ireland, Lochaber and Cloverville.
Antigonish Town is a fairly even mix of Irish and Scottish, and the Irish presence contributes to Nova Scotia's
Celtic cultural character.[citation needed]

Quebec is also home to a large Irish community, especially in
Montreal, where the Irish
shamrock is featured on the
municipal flag. This is not a sign of homage to the Irish but of the conquest of French speaking Québec by British who use the symbols of France, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland bounded within the English
cross of St. George.[citation needed] Notably, thousands of Irish emigrants during the Famine passed through
Grosse Isle near Québec City, where many succumbed to
typhus. Most of the Irish who settled near Québec City are now French speakers.

Ontario has over 2 million people of Irish descent, who in greater numbers arrived in the 1820s and the decades that followed to work on colonial infrastructure and to settle land tracts in Upper Canada, the result today is a countryside speckled with the place names of Ireland. Ontario received a large number of those who landed in Quebec during the Famine years, many thousands died in Ontario's ports. Irish-born became the majority in
Toronto by 1851.

Caribbean

From the 1620s, many of the Irish Roman Catholic merchant class in this period migrated voluntarily to the West Indies to avail of the business opportunities there occasioned by the trade in sugar, tobacco and cotton. They were followed by landless Irish indentured labourers, who were recruited to serve a landowner for a specified time before receiving freedom and land. The descendants of some Irish immigrants are known today in the West Indies as
redlegs. Most descendants of these Irishmen moved off the islands as
African slavery was implemented and blacks began to replace whites. Many Barbadian-born Irishmen helped establish the
Carolina colony in the United States.[68][69]

After
the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland Irish prisoners were forcibly transferred to English colonies in the Americas and sold into
indentured servitude, a practice that came to be known as being Barbadosed,[70][71] though Barbados was not the only colony to receive Irish prisoners, with those sent to
Montserrat being the best known.[72] To this day, Montserrat is the only country or territory in the world, apart from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Canadian province of
Newfoundland to observe a public holiday on
St Patrick's Day.[73] The population is predominantly of mixed Irish and African descent.[74][75]

Puerto Rico

Irish immigrants played an instrumental role in Puerto Rico's economy. One of the most important industries of the island was the sugar industry. Among the successful businessmen in this industry were Miguel Conway, who owned a plantation in the town of
Hatillo and Juan Nagle whose plantation was located in
Río Piedras. General
Alexander O'Reilly, "Father of the Puerto Rican Militia", named Tomas O'Daly chief engineer of modernising the defences of San Juan, this included the fortress of
San Cristóbal.[76] Tomas O'Daly and Miguel Kirwan were partners in the "Hacienda San Patricio", which they named after the
patron saint of Ireland,
Saint Patrick. A relative of O'Daly,
Demetrio O'Daly, succeeded Captain
Ramon Power y Giralt as the island's delegate to the Spanish Courts. The plantation no longer exists, however the land in which the plantation was located is now a San Patricio suburb with a shopping mall by the same name. The Quinlan family established two plantations, one in the town of
Toa Baja and the other in
Loíza.[77] Puerto Ricans of Irish descent were also instrumental in the development of the island's tobacco industry. Among them Miguel Conboy who was a founder of the tobacco trade in Puerto Rico.[76]

Chile

Many of the
Wild Geese, expatriate Irish soldiers who had gone to Spain, or their descendants, continued on to its colonies in South America. Many of them rose to prominent positions in the Spanish governments there. In the 1820s, some of them helped liberate the continent.
Bernardo O'Higgins was the first
Supreme director of
Chile. When Chilean troops occupied
Lima during the War of the Pacific in 1881, they put in charge certain
Patricio Lynch, whose grandfather came from Ireland to Argentina and then moved to Chile. Other Latin American countries that have Irish settlement include
Puerto Rico and
Colombia.

Mexico

The
County Wexford born
William Lamport, better known to most Mexicans as Guillén de Lampart, was a precursor of the Independence movement and author of the first proclamation of independence in the New World. His statue stands today in the Crypt of Heroes beneath the Column of Independence in Mexico City.[citation needed]

United States

The diaspora to the United States was immortalised in the words of many songs including the famous Irish
ballad, "The Green Fields of America":

So pack up your sea-stores, consider no longer,
Ten dollars a week is not very bad pay,
With no taxes or tithes to devour up your wages,
When you're on the green fields of Americay.

The experience of Irish immigrants in the United States has not always been harmonious. The US did not have a good relationship with most of the incoming Irish because of their Roman Catholic faith, as the majority of the population was Protestant and had been originally formed by offshoots of the Protestant faith, many of whom were from the north of Ireland (Ulster).[80] So it came as no surprise that the federal government issued new immigration acts, adding to previous ones which limited Eastern European immigration, ones which limited the immigration of the Irish.[81]

Those who were successful in coming over from Ireland were for the most part already good farm and other hard labour workers, so the jobs they were taking were plentiful in the beginning. However, as time went on and the land needed less cultivation, the jobs the new Irish immigrants were taking were those that Americans wanted as well.[82]
In most cases, Irish newcomers were sometimes uneducated and often found themselves competing with Americans for manual labour jobs or, in the 1860s, being recruited from the docks by the US Army to serve in the
American Civil War and afterward to build the Union Pacific Railroad.[83] This view of the Irish-American experience is depicted by another traditional song, "Paddy's Lamentation."

Hear me boys, now take my advice,
To America I'll have ye's not be going,
There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar,
And I wish I was at home in dear old Ireland.

Before the
Great Hunger ("Irish Potato
Famine"), in which over a million died and more emigrated,[84] there had been the
Penal Laws which had already resulted in significant emigration from Ireland.[85]

According to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, in 1790 there were 400,000 Americans of Irish birth or ancestry out of a total white population of 3,100,000. Half of these Irish Americans were descended from Ulster people, and half were descended from the people of Connacht, Leinster and Munster.

According to US Census figures from 2000, 41,000,000 Americans claim to be wholly or partly of Irish ancestry, a group that represents more than one in five white Americans. Many
African Americans are part of the Irish diaspora, as they are descended from
Scots-Irish slave owners and overseers who arrived in America during the colonial era.[86][87][88] The US Census Bureau's data from 2016 reveals that Irish ancestry is one of the most common reported ancestries reported (in the top 3 most common ancestries reported). Even though Irish immigration is extremely small relative to the scope of current migration, Irish ancestry is one of the most common ancestries in the United States because of the events that took place over a century ago.[89]

It is widely believed that there existed a secret alliance between the Irish and Indian independence movements. Some Indian intellectuals like
Jawaharlal Nehru and
V. V. Giri were certainly inspired by Irish nationalists when they studied in the
United Kingdom. The Indian revolutionary group known as the
Bengal Volunteers took this name in emulation of the
Irish Volunteers.

Australia

2,087,800 (10.4%) of Australians self-reported some Irish ancestry in the 2011 census, second only to English and Australian.[90]
The Australian government estimates the total figure may be around 7 million (30%).[91]

In the 2006 census 50,255 Australian residents declared they were born in the
Republic of Ireland and a further 21,291 declared to have been born in
Northern Ireland.[92] This gives Australia the third largest Irish-born population outside of Ireland (after Britain and America).[91]

Between the 1790s and 1920s, approximately 400,000 Irish settlers – both voluntary and forced – are thought to have arrived in Australia.[93] They first came over in large numbers as
convicts, with around 50,000 transported between 1791 and 1867.[94][95] Even larger numbers of
free settlers came during the 19th century due to famine, the
Donegal Relief Fund, the
discovery of gold in
Victoria and
New South Wales, and the increasing "pull" of a pre-existing Irish community.[96] By 1871, Irish immigrants accounted for one quarter of Australia's overseas-born population.[97]

Irish Catholic immigrants – who made up about 75% of the total Irish population[93] – were largely responsible for the establishment of a separate
Catholic school system.[98][99] About 20% of Australian children attend Catholic schools as of 2017.[100]

Henry Nourse, a shipowner at the Cape, brought out a small party of Irish settlers in 1818. In 1823, John Ingram brought out 146 Irish from Cork. Single Irish women were sent to the Cape on a few occasions. Twenty arrived in November 1849 and 46 arrived in March 1851. The majority arrived in November 1857 aboard the Lady Kennaway. A large contingent of Irish troops fought in the
Anglo-Boer War on both sides and a few of them stayed in South Africa after the war. Others returned home but later came out to settle in South Africa with their families. Between 1902 and 1905, there were about 5,000 Irish immigrants. Places in South Africa named after Irish people include
Upington,
Porterville,
Caledon,
Cradock,
Sir Lowry's Pass, the Biggarsberg Mountains,
Donnybrook,
Himeville and
Belfast.

New Zealand

The Diaspora population of Ireland also got a fresh start on the islands of
New Zealand during the later half of the 19th century. The ideology of striking it rich in the gold mines caused many Irish people to flock to the docks; risking their lives on the long voyage to potential freedom and more importantly self-sufficiency. Most famous places including both
Gabriel's Gully and
Otago are examples of mining sites which, with the funding of large companies, allowed for the creation of wages and the appearance of mining towns. Women found jobs as housemaids cleaning the shacks of the single men at work thereby providing a second income to the Irish family household. The subsequent money accumulated with regards to this would allow for
chain migration for the rest of the family left behind.[103]

The Transition to New Zealand was made easier due to the overexposure that the Irish had previously had with colonialism. They ventured upwards to the British ports, settling temporarily to accumulate the necessary finances before moving onwards towards the banks of the far away island. In doing so, they not only exposed themselves to the form of British form of government but likewise to capitalism. This aided to further the simplicity of the transition for the dispersed population.[104]

The government aided through the use of both promissory notes and land grants. By promising to pay for the passage of a family the government ensured that the island would be populated and a British colony would be formed. Free passage was installed for women first between the ages of 15–35, while males between the ages of 18–40 years of age would be promised a certain amount of acres of land upon arrival in the New World. This was attributed to the installment of the New Zealand Land act. To further aid with the financial burden, free passage to any immigrant was granted after 1874.[105]

A final note with regards to importance of the Irish diaspora population in New Zealand deals with the diminished amount of prejudice present for the Roman Catholic population upon arrival. The lack of embedded hierarchy and social structure in the New World allowed for previous sectarian tensions to be dissolved. This can also be attributed to the sheer amount of distance between the respective religions due to the sparseness of the unpopulated area and the sheer size of the islands.[106]

Self-identified "Irish"33,348,049[107]11% of the US population (2013)Scotch–Irish Americans27 to 30 million[108][109]Up to 10% of the U.S. population5,827,046 (Self-reported only, 2008) 2% of the total U.S. population[110]

Religion

Paul Cardinal Cullen set out to spread Irish dominance over the English-speaking Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century. The establishment of an 'Irish Episcopal Empire' involved three transnational entities – the British Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Irish diaspora. Irish clergy, notably Cullen, made particular use of the reach of the British Empire to spread their influence. From the 1830s until his death in 1878, Cullen held several key positions near the top of the Irish hierarchy and influenced Rome's appointment of Irish bishops on four continents.[125]

Walker (2007) compares Irish immigrant communities in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain respecting issues of identity and 'Irishness.' Religion remained the major cause of differentiation in all Irish diaspora communities and had the greatest impact on identity, followed by the nature and difficulty of socio-economic conditions faced in each new country and the strength of continued social and political links of Irish immigrants and their descendants with Ireland.

In the United States specifically, Irish immigrants were persecuted because of their religion. The Know Nothing Movement sprung up during the time of the Irish's arrival.[126] The Know Nothing Party was formed by Protestants and was the first political party in American history to push against Catholic immigration to the United States, particularly targeting Irish and German immigrants. The Know Nothings fought to limit immigration from traditional Catholic countries, prohibit non-English language speaking on US territory, and create a policy where you must spend 21 years in the US before gaining citizenship.[126] The party faded out of existence relatively quickly, but they are a reminder of the persecution Irish immigrants faced. During the third and fourth waves of immigration, new arrivals faced similar discrimination and the now settled Irish would take part in this persecution of other groups.

From the late 20th century onward, Irish identity abroad became increasingly cultural, non-denominational, and non-political, although many emigrants from Northern Ireland stood apart from this trend. However, Ireland as religious reference point is now increasingly significant in
neopagan contexts.[127][128]

Famous members of the diaspora

Politicians

This listing is for politicians of
Irish nationality or origin, who were or are engaged in the politics of a foreign country. The term Irish diaspora is open to many interpretations. One, preferred by the
government of Ireland, is defined in legal terms: the Irish diaspora are those of Irish nationality, mostly but not exclusively Roman Catholic, residing outside of the island of Ireland. This includes Irish citizens who have emigrated abroad and their children, who were Irish citizens by descent under Irish law. It also includes their grandchildren in cases. See also
Irish military diaspora. (See also
Notable Americans of Scotch-Irish descent).

^Michelle Hudson, "The Effect of 'Roots' and the Bicentennial on Genealogical Interest among Patrons of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History," Journal of Mississippi History 1991 53(4): 321–336

^James Webb, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America (New York: Broadway Books, 2004), front flap: 'More than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to the Scots, whose bloodline was stained by centuries of continuous warfare along the border between England and Scotland, and later in the bitter settlements of England's Ulster Plantation in Northern Ireland.' ISBN0-7679-1688-3

Whelan, Bernadette. "Women on the Move: a review of the historiography of Irish emigration to the USA, 1750–1900." Women's History Review 24.6 (2015): 900–16.

Horner, Dan. "'If the Evil Now Growing around Us Be Not Staid': Montreal and Liverpool Confront the Irish Famine Migration as a Transnational Crisis in Urban Governance." Histoire Sociale/Social History 46, no. 92 (2013): 349–66.

1 Russia is a
transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. The vast majority of its population (80%) lives in
European Russia, therefore Russia as a whole is included as a European country here.

2 Turkey is a transcontinental country in the Middle East and Southeast Europe. It has a small part of its territory (3%) in Southeast Europe called
Turkish Thrace.

3Azerbaijan, and
Georgia are transcontinental countries. Both have a small part of their territories in the European part of the
Caucasus.

4Kazakhstan is a transcontinental country. It has a small part of its territories located west of the Urals in Eastern Europe.

5Cyprus and
Armenia are entirely in Southwest Asia, but has socio-political and historical connections with Europe.